Curious, who are you replacing the Smurfs with? These two are considered skill guys, are you replacing them with more stone hands tough guys that will massively intimidate the likes of Kopitar, Richards, Carter, Brown, Doughty into little school children? If anything, I can understand sitting Ebbet, but at least with Raymond, he is noticeable and trying to make things happen offensively, but hey, if ya think scoring isn't our problem right now, maybe you are right. Maybe Bitz for Raymond will help solve their offensive woes. Not.

If there is one player taking up space is Kassian. He's just completely lost out there.

"I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? - Plastics." - The Graduate

Mondi wrote:
This crap about needing a rebuild is hilarious. A rebuild? They had 111 points. Do you rebuild after that? I mean seriously, do you?

Who says rebuild. I'm talking about what the Flyers did after being ousted in the playoffs early after going to the Finals and losing in the Finals the previous year. What they did in the off-season was fucking brilliant GM-ing if you ask me. They saw that they weren't gonna go anywhere with the current core. After two kicks at the can. They created more depth up front, Simmonds, Voracek, Schenn and Couturier, handed the reigns over to the new guard - Giroux, got rid of the 'stale' old guard and freshened up in which seems to be working against the Crosby/Malkin Penguins. If the Canucks bow out in the first round, trading a goaltender ain't solving anything. It's still the same tired ol' group and they are now 1 year older, ie the Sedins 32, Burrows 31, Bieksa 31 and so on. FIring a coach solves nothing, it's just deflecting blame.

Gillis has himself in a serious pickle if this team falls completely flat on its face in which they are half way to that. He is gonna have to get some serious good youth back for one of his goalies like the Flyers did, and maybe consider moving Kesler. If the Flyers can trade Richards and Carter why is out of the world to trade Kesler???? You can create a great young 2nd line after the Sedin line by moving Kes and one of the goalies. Kesler simply is a lone wolf out there and does not know how to use his line mates affectively.

"I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? - Plastics." - The Graduate

I liked the CoHo trade when it happened and for a number of reasons. But having watched Kassian and MAG I don't get it. Whoever our pro scouts are that "sold" MG on Kassian, that absolutely loved this guy, well who are they? I think Buffalo fleeces us big time as they knew Kassian's warts and they had Foligno waiting for an opportunity.

MAG is not an AV player. He got in his number of games and I doubt, barring injuries or an insane desire to blame Ballard for the loss, MAG will see a playoff game. He did't show me the promise MG said he had. Kassian, Gassian, is so lost out there. He has thrown a few hits and we played with bigger balls for a few games after he came on board but he really has not done anything to warrant his playing time.

MG blew the CoHo deal. I get why he got Pahlsson and support that move. I get that he decided Coho was now an asset that could be moved but he handled it the way Calgary handled Diana and the way the Bruins handled Thornton. He did not send the message out that Coho was available and see what came back. MG once said that he admired how Wilson in SJS handled moves, he targeted a player or players and then went out and made the deal happen. I get that. But I don'g get how he could not have let all teams know CoHo was for sale.

Bottom line I think we got fleeced on the CoHo deal. No one could have predicted that Dank would be injured and out for the first round but, and this is a big but, we all knew that injuries would occur and MG did nothing to improve the top 6 depth wise. He did not address the warts on D. He did make us tougher on the bottom 6.

Anyway, as someone else pointed out now is not the time to dissect. And yes we have plenty of time to get back in this. Win the next game and its 2-1. One game at a time and get the job done. And as far as Dank goes, he may not see the playoffs at all this year. And if he is still not 100% I am fine with that. You don't fuck with that one at all.

Hockey Widow wrote:I liked the CoHo trade when it happened and for a number of reasons. But having watched Kassian and MAG I don't get it. Whoever our pro scouts are that "sold" MG on Kassian, that absolutely loved this guy, well who are they? I think Buffalo fleeces us big time as they knew Kassian's warts and they had Foligno waiting for an opportunity.

MAG is not an AV player. He got in his number of games and I doubt, barring injuries or an insane desire to blame Ballard for the loss, MAG will see a playoff game. He did't show me the promise MG said he had. Kassian, Gassian, is so lost out there. He has thrown a few hits and we played with bigger balls for a few games after he came on board but he really has not done anything to warrant his playing time.

MG blew the CoHo deal. I get why he got Pahlsson and support that move. I get that he decided Coho was now an asset that could be moved but he handled it the way Calgary handled Diana and the way the Bruins handled Thornton. He did not send the message out that Coho was available and see what came back. MG once said that he admired how Wilson in SJS handled moves, he targeted a player or players and then went out and made the deal happen. I get that. But I don'g get how he could not have let all teams know CoHo was for sale.

Bottom line I think we got fleeced on the CoHo deal. No one could have predicted that Dank would be injured and out for the first round but, and this is a big but, we all knew that injuries would occur and MG did nothing to improve the top 6 depth wise. He did not address the warts on D. He did make us tougher on the bottom 6.

Anyway, as someone else pointed out now is not the time to dissect. And yes we have plenty of time to get back in this. Win the next game and its 2-1. One game at a time and get the job done. And as far as Dank goes, he may not see the playoffs at all this year. And if he is still not 100% I am fine with that. You don't fuck with that one at all.

Another wheel falls off the wagon...what's hilarious is the amount of people that are pointing to this trade that broke us...did Hodgson help the Sabres get into the playoffs? No. Did Hodgson play great in the stretch? No. People are quick to blame and abandon ship when it's only been 2 games...

The fact that LA in recent history has been a sub .500 home team and the Canucks have been a strong road team this year is the only thing I'm focusing on right now. I think we have the depth up front to get some gritty hard work goals, it's just a matter of executing their game plan and stop letting LA dictate everything.

I agree Kassian isn't what he has been billed as thus far and outside his first few games has been unimpressive much like his short stint in Buffalo this season. I think with a little work he will be a good piece in the future though, he has the tools but his conditioning, endurance and stamina is holding him back from what he could be. i like the potential he brings to the table and I hope the Canucks fully develop him.

I've said it a few times this season but the Canucks breakout is utter shit. Every time our d man with the puck looks up he's trapped on an island with white shirts surrounding him while the wingers are standing still at the red line ready to tip the puck into the Kings zone and give them possession back. This was meant to be a FAST and POSSESSION based team, which is why the breakout is fundamentally broken. Instead of moving out as a 5 man unit they are standing around and tipping the puck to the other team, and because they are standing still they can't build enough speed to beat them to the dump in. The Kings have been doing a simple pass to their d partner and head manning the puck and are having much more success.

I hope the master plan on the PP all this time was simply rimming the puck behind the net repeatedly until Doughboy or Willie's big stick retrieves it for an easy out. They are cutting it off every time and it's entirely too predictable.

The moment this team starts outworking the Kings for longer stretches they will start getting the bounces but if they think they will just coast to the cup because they made it last year they are wildly delusional.

Mondi, I don't believe this team lacks confidence. In fact, sometimes, I think they have too much in the sense that they always think they can come back and win...right until the final horn sounds and they notice they didn't. The 'no-confidence' argument is a media(fan?)-generated knee-jerk explanation to a loss. I think if you really dug into the issue, you'd find that teams with no confidence don't achieve a damn thing (Columbus?). This is general confidence as a team, though. I do believe that some of the guys are not playing loose at all. Confident on the whole, but still nervous about mistakes (even though they are inevitable). If Edler doesn't relax a bit, he's going to break one of his notoriously brittle sticks by grip-strength alone. I think they need a cameo from Pat Quinn... he should drop by the room and tell one of his pre-game jokes from the '94 run.

RE: Cody... probably the one thing that Gillis should have done was at least give him this year's playoffs. Guys like Kassian (at his current level of development) should be at least somewhat dime-a-dozen. With the PP struggling, I sure wish we had Cody to give it a go with the 2nd unit. This, of course, is a very 20/20 hindsight observation.

Erhoff: offensive help, yes, but he was pretty dreadful defensively in the Finals (admittedly with a bad shoulder).

If they play out the series with a good effort and continue as disciplined as they played in G2 and lose to ferocious fore-checking and stellar goaltending, how much blame can we cast? The Kings are relaxed and on a roll - exactly the kind of thing that wins Cups (see Larry Goodenough's quote). The Canucks may very well need a lucky break to get things rolling in our favour, not just hard work.

Agree that it's only 2 games, but you can't ignore what the teams' GF percentage has been before and after that trade.

Hodgson, in a 3rd line capacity, produced some key goals for us at very key times. Even if it was a small difference, having that extra scoring punch on the 3rd line may have alleviated a lot of pressure off the top two lines (which in effect, helped them play better).

If the wheel ain't broke, why fix it?

The Canucks didn't lose to the Bruins last year because of lack of toughness.

The main reason why we lost was because we couldn't roll 3 effective scoring lines due to most of our team being injured.

The Canucks' biggest problem as a team, for the past 2 years, has been producing consistent offense in a post-season environment. If this problem is corrected, I believe that our goaltending and defense will follow (provided that our defense is reasonably healthy of course).

Arachnid wrote:
Another wheel falls off the wagon...what's hilarious is the amount of people that are pointing to this trade that broke us...did Hodgson help the Sabres get into the playoffs? No. Did Hodgson play great in the stretch? No. People are quick to blame and abandon ship when it's only been 2 games...

First, I'm far from off the wagon or abandoning ship. Second I never said the season was lost on that deal. Third I never said the Canucks lack confidence I said I lack confidence in the Canucks. Doesn't mean I've fallen off the wagon.

5-5 the Canucks have looked good but haven't really tested Quick as much as they need to. Their PK has been average and their PP has been atrocious. So far a special teams series and LA is winning the special teams battle.

Can we still win this series, absolutely? Do I have the confidence in the team as I did in last year's, no I don't? Am I still a fan still cheering for the Canucks, absolutely and always will be.

Lets not forget 2 years ago when LA was dominating the Canucks in the special teams battle, what was it 6 or 7 PP goals in a row for LA until AV finally gave up and tried the Sedns on the PK to get them into the series. Once the Canucks adjusted it was all downhill.

How does taking out one of your best players in the series make any sense?

The Canucks shouldn't need a goalie replacement to help "motivate themselves." They will and should already be pissed off and determined for a big game tomorrow.

Putting Schneider in just reaks of desperation and white flag waving. LA will smell blood.

Furthermore - lets say Schneider has a bad game or bad period. Then what? Not only have you pissed off Luongo, but you also leave Schneider out to dry.

Farhan's advice: Put Lou in for tomorrow. If the Canucks lose tomorrow, then you can put Schneider in for Game 4 (assuming that Lou is lackluster in a possible loss tomorrow).

Should of doesn’t help. It’s time to stir it up.

We’ve seen how this team (& others) can respond positively to a goalie change. Luongo has been our best player in this series, but we’re blessed with two good goalie’s.

Changing to another good, but different goalie can make the Kings less confident. Hurting their game is as good as improving ours. This is strategy, not desparation.

We don’t have to insult Luongo – make it clear this is being done to shake up the skaters, to give the Kings pause, & get Luongo rested for more work. Nobody (outside the Canucks) need know about it until Schneider takes the net.

There's no guarantees to any of this, but the status quo ain't working